Unique Ergodicity for the Projective Process of the 2D Navier--Stokes Equation with Nondegenerate Noise

Abstract

We prove unique ergodicity of the projective process associated with the two dimensional Navier--Stokes equation in vorticity form, with additive diagonal noise acting on every nonzero real Fourier phase and satisfying two sided power law bounds. Consequently, the exact Furstenberg--Khasminskii formula for the top Lyapunov exponent holds. The main new ingredient is a compact dense mechanism for asymptotic generalized coupling in the absence of a Foiaş--Prodi type high-low mode decomposition for the projective dynamics. Using the dense range of the Malliavin derivative and compactness of the state derivative, we construct finite rank perturbations of the Wiener path that compensate, to first order, for perturbations of the initial condition, leaving a residual whose logarithmic growth has negative stationary mean and hence contracts locally at an exponential rate, with a cost controlled by a triangular scheme of blockwise Ramer transformations.